According to researchers from Austria, Thailand and Brunei, who recently discovered 15 new species of a group they are calling Colobopsis cylindrica, or "the exploding ants," minor workers in the species can actively rupture their own body walls.

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Researchers from Austria, Thailand and Brunei have identified roughly 15 separate species of exploding ants, with one of them described as new to science. The ants live in trees in Borneo

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Apart from leading to the ants' imminent death, the defensive "explosion" releases a sticky, toxic liquid from their enlarged glands, in order to either kill or hold off the enemy. The secretion is yellow, with almost the consistency of a curry sauce.

Scientists refer to the kind of self-sacrifice these ants display as "autothysis."

The ants in one particular species, Colobopsis explodens, seemed especially volatile, and had previously gone by the nickname "Yellow Goo," for their brightly-colored toxic secretion.

The scientists deemed members of Colobopsis explodens to be "particularly prone to self-sacrifice when threatened by enemy arthropods, as well as intruding researchers."

For that reason, that particular species will serve as a "model species" for future studies, which the authors say are already in the works. They say they still need to know more about the ants' behavior, chemical profile, microbiology, anatomy and evolution.

While minor workers had the ability to explode, other castes of the species had their own specialties in battle as well. A group known as major workers did not explode as frequently, but used their enlarged, plug-shaped heads to barricade the nesting entrances as intruders advanced on the colony.